Life Balance

The Counterintuitive Key to Work-Life Balance

Adding this plan to your daily routine actually helps you get more done

The Counterintuitive Key to Work-Life BalanceAdding this plan to your daily routine actually helps you get more done

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When you're struggling with endless to-do lists at the office and at home, you might consider flaking on the gym in order to make time for it all. But new research shows that working out more is the secret to improving your work-life balance.

In the forthcoming Human Resource Management (and in a sneak peek on the Harvard Business Review's blog, Russell Clayton, assistant professor of management at Saint Leo University's Donald R. Tapia School of Business, explains that he surveyed a population of working adults on two aspects: their exercise habits and how good they are at resolving work and home demands.

You'd think that those who skipped or skimped on workouts fared better, since they freed up some valuable time, right?

Nope. Respondents who stuck with their regular exercise, Clayton reports, were less likely to experience conflict between their work and outside-of-work roles. He believes this relationship between a person's structured, repetitive physical activity and her ability to manage the intersection between job and home stems from two ideas: Exercise both reduces stress (which itself is an incentive to make time for the gym), and increases self-efficacy (which leads being able to tackle challenges head-on).

There's also, of course, the possibility that we're looking at a case of correlation, rather than causation, here. People who are able to manage their time effectively enough to fit in exercise may just be better at managing their time, period. That being said, it's undeniable that getting plenty of exercise is great for both mind and body, and that feeling less stressed (a known result of getting physical activity) can make the whole work-life balance thing easier to handle on an emotional level. (Along those lines, be sure to check out these 15 Fitness Habits You Should Establish in Your Twenties, and these 30 Health Choices All Women Should Make By Age 30).